This invention relates to the telephone index used with telephone automatic calling devices such as telephone repertory dialers.
Telephone repertory dialers are subscriber's telephone sets in which frequently called telephone numbers may be stored. During use, the subscriber needs to push one or a few buttons only to initiate the call instead of "dialing" all digits of the said telephone number. Therefore, they are very convenient for subscribers. However if the capacity of the dialer is large, for instance accommodating more than 100 frequently called telephone numbers, the subscriber will have difficulty remembering each abbreviated number of those telephone numbers. This may be one of the main reasons why no large capacity telephone repertory dialers of the push button type are found on the market. Telephone repertory dialers of large capacity are very useful to many businessmen because they need to call many of the same customers frequently. The telephone indices described herein will eliminate the need for the subscriber remembering the abbreviated numbers of all stored telephone numbers.
This invention describes various telephone indices. Different methods of indexing may be used for different capacities of the dialers. For a small capacity dialer, the name corresponding to a frequently called telephone number is generally written adjacent to the button representing it. For dialers of large capacity, this method will occupy too large a space. The telephone indices of this invention will describe apparatus and methods of placing names of frequently called telephone numbers on strips of paper, which may be put upon the dialer in different ways without occupying large table space, and the physical size of the dialer need not be materially increased over a smaller capacity dialer. The location of the desired repertory button representing the required telephone number may be found simultaneously with the operation of the dialer. This means that no additional operation will be required such as referring to different strips of paper of the telephone index, thereby also saving much time.
The main object of the invention is to provide several forms of telephone indices which are simple in construction, compact in space, simple in operation, and in which it is easy for the subscriber to find the particular repertory button representing the telephone number wanted.
Another object of the invention is to incorporate such forms of automatic telephone indices in dialers of large capacity so that the desired repertory button may be found simultaneously by the subscriber during initiation of the telephone call without an additional operation being required.